Last month, foreclosure filings were initiated by lenders on 576 households in Manatee County Circuit Court. The figures represented an increase from 497 filings for foreclose houses recorded in the county in June.
The development ended a three-month trend of dropping foreclosure filings in Manatee and dashed the hopes of industry experts who were looking forward for the easing of the foreclosure crisis.
The July totals were the second highest monthly figures reported in the county. Meanwhile, industry experts are hoping the spike in July filings was just a flash in the pan.
According to market data, local foreclosure filings started rising steadily in the latter months of 2006 and reached their peak last March with 608. The following month saw a decline in foreclosure filings through June.
But industry experts said that despite the drop in foreclosure filings from April to June, the numbers remained 20 percent higher than the previous year’s record pace. Overall, lenders initiated 3,769 repossession actions until the end of July.
Industry analysts blamed several factors for the increase in July’s foreclosure filings, including the rising unemployment rate, falling home values, resetting of adjustable rate mortgages and expiration of foreclosure moratoriums.
Meanwhile, industry analysts have observed a growing number of distressed homeowners who seek to refinance their loans on properties with values less than the total amount they owed for their mortgages. They said that many homeowners who could not find refinancing opted to walk away from their distressed properties and let their lenders foreclosed on them.
Analysts said that many homeowners do not want to spend more money on properties that have lost their value, thus adding to the growing foreclosure rate in the county. They conceded that property values are so low that many homeowners would find it difficult to recover their investments, preferring to give them up.
Additionally, analysts cited pay reductions and high unemployment rate as factors that further fuel the foreclosure crisis. Moreover, the unwillingness of lenders to work with troubled borrowers and the lackluster performance of the foreclosure prevention program of the federal government added to the reasons why foreclosure continues to spread not just in the county but in many parts of the country.
And while the foreclosure problem started with low-income borrowers of subprime loans, it has now grown to include creditworthy and affluent homeowners.